FORM A CON­CRETE FACE

Trans­fer the smil­ing face of a plas­tic pump­kin bucket to a con­crete pump­kin that is equally at home in­doors and out. Mary and Tim Vidra at 17 Apart made theirs to join a fun dis­play on their front steps.

STEP 1 Se­lect a plas­tic pump­kin bucket that has in­den­ta­tions for the fa­cial fea­tures; painted-on fea­tures will not trans­fer.

STEP 2 Mix fast-set­ting con­crete with wa­ter in a bucket ac­cord­ing to the pack­age direc­tions. Mary and Tim used just over half of a 60-pound bag of Quikrete for their stan­dard-size plas­tic pump­kin.

STEP 3 Coat the in­te­rior of the plas­tic pump­kin with cook­ing spray. Work­ing quickly, fill the pump­kin two-thirds of the way full with the wet con­crete. Gen­tly lift and drop the pump­kin to re­move air bub­bles and set­tle the mix into the mold.

STEP 4 Spray the out­side of a plas­tic paint cup or sim­i­lar con­tainer with cook­ing spray. Press it down into the wet con­crete. Us­ing a trowel, fill in any re­main­ing space with wet con­crete, up to the rim of the pump­kin.

STEP 5 Place in a cool, dry space for at least 24 hours.

STEP 6 Once dry, gen­tly twist and re­move the paint cup.

STEP 7 Use a box cut­ter to cut a ver­ti­cal line through the plas­tic along one of the nat­u­ral ridges of the pump­kin. Try not to dig too deeply into the con­crete. Make ad­di­tional cuts un­til you have four “flaps” that you can pull away and re­lease the con­crete from the mold.

STEP 8 Smooth any rough edges or cuts with sand­pa­per.

STEP 9 Paint all or a por­tion of the pump­kin. If you pre­fer an un­painted, nat­u­ral fin­ish, ap­ply a few thin coats of low-odor clear matte spray.